1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a part-conveying apparatus, particularly, to an apparatus in which parts are aligned along a sloped chute and the parts are slid down the chute.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as a separating and conveying apparatus for small parts such as chip parts, an apparatus as described below is known.
The apparatus has a chamber, a sloped chute, and a horizontal guide path. The chamber stores a large number of parts. The chute aligns the parts from a lower end section of the chamber and ejects the parts. The guide path is connected to the lower end section of the chute, and the parts are ejected from the end of the guide path. This type of apparatus is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications Nos. 63-127600 and 8-222890.
The conveying apparatus allows the parts to slide down with the weight of the parts. Therefore, the larger the slope angle in the chute, the easier the parts slide down the chute. With a large slope angle in the chute, however, the angle at which the chute intersects with the horizontal guide path also increases, in which the parts may not move smoothly in the guide path and at the intersection. In contrast, with a small slope angle in the chute, the parts move smoothly in the guide path and at the intersection, but frictional forces between the parts and the chute increase, thereby frequently causing jamming of the parts. Simple increase of the slope angle in the chute is not a sufficient measure for prevention of jams in cases where the individual parts are of a small mass, are dirty, or are electrostatically charged.
To solve these problems, proposals have been made to feed compressed air into the chute or to draw out air therefrom to force the parts to slide down. These arrangements, however, require additional devices, such as an air supply and air paths, thereby producing problems of increased cost.